Unpredictability is perhaps the most defining trait when it comes to Wisconsin's spring weather.

Temperatures can fluctuate 30 or 40 degrees within a matter of days. Snowstorms in April — and, in rare cases, May — lead to soggy fields, postponements and frustration.

Mother Nature's volatility in spring presents a challenge for athletes, coaches, activity directors and game officials around the state, and WIAA assistant director Stephanie Hauser can speak from experience.

Hauser was athletic administrator and assistant principal at Stevens Point Area Senior High from 2008-13 and, before that, at New London High School (2003-07), where she was activities director and assistant principal.

"The challenging part and the easiest way to solve it is to be proactive," Hauser said. "And it’s so hard, especially for a high school athletic director because many of them are wearing multiple hats. They’re teaching, they’re coaching, they’re the principals, but if they can get online (to check weather) the day before and the morning of, it’s huge. If you can anticipate what’s coming and beat it, there’s many things you can do.

"I can’t tell you the number of times when I was at SPASH and working with (softball coach) Tom Drohner. He’d be on the weather app early on in the morning and be at my office at 7:15 and we’d be looking to move the game up two hours just to beat the weather."

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Iola-Scandinavia fans use an umbrella to protect themselves from rain and high winds during a severe weather delay before the semifinal against Laconia during the WIAA Division 3 spring baseball tournament last year at Fox Cities Stadium.(Photo: Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

"You have to be mindful of the team coming your way," he said. "So in our conference with Fond du Lac, their bus is leaving at 2 p.m., and the last thing you want is them coming (when you have to postpone). So sometimes it's hard because you have to make the call at 1:45 p.m. for a storm that might be coming. Those are always tough and having to wait that out."

Athletes also have to be flexible with their practice times, said Oshkosh North junior pitcher Sydney Supple, one of the top pitchers in the nation, who has verbally committed to play in college at Northwestern University.

"Spring sports is very challenging, obviously, with the weather and living in a Midwest state," she said. "But you have to be flexible and try to learn to simulate outdoor practices and games inside. I have different ways. I pitch on mats and I'll throw a little dirt on there and I'll go outside and rub the dirt in my hands, just to get used to the feeling and trying to simulate the best I can.

"Growing up in Oshkosh and being in Wisconsin, I feel like I’m mentally tough and that I'm OK with the cold weather and it doesn’t faze me as much as the warmer areas trying to come down by us. So I think it’s an advantage for me and picking a college in the Midwest, I think I'll be better prepared for it."

'Anything can literally happen'

The transition from winter to spring is especially tricky in a three-week stretch that spans late March into April, when the full schedule for spring teams usually starts.

That is also when the relationship between Wisconsin weather and high school sports can get messy, according to WFRV-TV Channel 5 (Green Bay) chief meteorologist Luke Sampe.

"We're kind of in that area of the calendar where anything can literally happen in Wisconsin," Sampe said. "You're talking some of our biggest snowstorms on record have occurred in the month of March and some of our biggest warm-ups early season have also occurred in late March, early April. It's a time frame of the year, of the calendar in Wisconsin, that can literally deliver any type of weather from snowstorms to severe weather. It's an issue a lot of athletic directors have to deal with.

"You get ribbons of both seasons in this part of the year. You could have a leftover snowstorm that has yet to hit or those early season warm-ups where you hit 70 or 80 for one or two days, then the next day it's back down to 40."

Sampe added that the chance of snow clears up by April, but there have been a pair of instances where May has seen significant snowfall.

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Members of the Marathon track team gather their items and leave the stadium after more severe weather was expected to hit the UW-La Crosse stadium during the 2014 WIAA state track and field meet.(Photo: Matthew Apgar/HTR Media)

Northeastern Wisconsin was hit with a snowstorm that produced 3-8 inches of snow on May 10, 1990. More recently, 15-20 inches of snow fell in the northwestern part of the state the first week of May 2013.

Other parts of the state received less snowfall that week in 2013, but Hauser remembers that despite that weather anomaly being particularly disruptive, she was able to coordinate with her coaches and opponents to fit in all of their scheduled games.

"The spring of 2013, that was an absolute nightmare for everybody in the state," she said. "Our baseball team and softball teams went to the state tournament that year and both played all 26 games and that was largely because my two head coaches and I worked together to always stay ahead of it and try to schedule things where we knew we could beat the weather. So that was huge.

"We do the same thing for tournament time. (The WIAA) will look to see weather statewide and send emails out telling ADs, 'Hey, think about this. Look at the weather. It looks like Thursday could possibly be bad for regionals. Think about playing those games on Wednesday if you can.' So we try to help them problem-solve in advance."

Hauser added that schools in the northwest part of the state have asked the WIAA about ways to work within the rule book when it comes to player safety, especially pitchers when their seasons become condensed due to weather.

"They've taken some unique approaches in that part of the state," she said. "Many more turf fields are popping up because those are ready to play on. Teams have also gotten creative in that they'll send their schools to play on turf when they know they’re not going to have a field that’s ready. Our office has allowed doubleheaders to be five-inning games instead of seven.

"Many of the northern schools, they lost their first half of the season (in 2013) and ended up playing a whole lot of doubleheaders on the backside. So you had to kind of take into account the safety of the players and pitchers' arms. They have reached out to our office in extreme situations and asked, 'How can you help and what can we do within the rules to make this work for our kids?' We don’t want to lose games and don’t want to jeopardize the health and safety of kids and we also don’t want to take them out of class four out of the five days of the week."

Appleton North athletic director Nate Werner said postponements are always looked at as the last resort when it comes to inclement weather.

"ADs try their best to hold off as long as possible before postponing games," he said. "Spring weather in Wisconsin can change so quickly and we try to keep all of our options open. Spring coaches and teams know they need to be ready to go at the drop of a hat or even be ready to travel, even if we are supposed to host if the opponent's fields are ready and ours are not, on any given day. ADs would prefer to get the games in if at all possible. Postponing is always the last option."

Flexibility is key

Because poor weather forces schedules to be more fluid in the spring, athletic and activities directors are aware that they must be accommodating when the need arises.

"ADs all know that we’re dealing with the same thing," McDaniel said. "You want to help each other out as much as possible. It’s hard because coaches are looking at their schedules and they want things to line up, but I think all of our spring coaches kind of know that they have to be flexible.

"I've been very lucky in working with the ADs I've worked with. I think in the (Fox Valley Association) we work really well together and understand that that could be me with that same problem and we want to help each other out."

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Stevens Point softball fans take cover while their game is under a rain delay during the WIAA Division 1 quarterfinal game against Kenosha Tremper at Goodman Diamond in Madison in June 2016.(Photo: Joe Sienkiewicz, Joe Sienkiewicz / USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

Werner said it's rare when a fellow athletic director isn't willing to be flexible.

"In my experience, all of the area ADs are really easy to work with," he said. "I feel lucky to work with a lot of great people who understand sports and we all have the same goal, to keep kids safe."

When postponements are necessary, Werner said, he tries to work with the opposing AD for a common date as early as possible.

"The reason for that is because you always want to keep your May dates open in case there are postponements during that month and you run out of days you have available before the playoffs begin," he said. "The baseball and softball coaches, especially, realize that we may need to move to playing doubleheaders late in the season if we have a lot of postponements.

"So playing the make-up games early is important. It's usually pretty easy to get them rescheduled. Coaches prefer not to have more than 3-to-4 games in a week, but they also understand that sometimes that is just the nature of the beast and they have to play that often."

Werner added that officials and umpires also are understanding when it comes to sudden scheduling changes.

"You always feel bad having to cancel on an official when it's so close to game time, knowing many of them may be taking time out of their day jobs to work our events," he said. "We are very lucky to have such great officials in our area."

Valders athletic director Kelly Isselmann echoed Werner.

"To be honest, the spring sports season is the worst because of all of the cancellations and rescheduling of games," she said. "Not only do you have to let the teams know, but you have to make sure the officials know as well and check with them to see if they can work the rescheduled game.

"I take each day and sport one day at a time. The officials and ADs in this area are awesome to work with and understand how spring can be."